American things that you wouldn’t expect to be popular in France but actually are

American fast food is huge here. McDonalds (or McDo as the French call it) being popular in France makes sense, considering McDonalds is now the biggest colonial power on the planet and third in GDP only to the U.S. and China. However, I would never have expected KFC to be as popular in France as it is. Most French people have no idea where Kentucky is, and would probably place it on a map somewhere near Zimbabwe. Subway is also extremely popular, which seems to go against everything that I know about French cuisine. Why, in the country with the best bread and cheese in the world, would people want to eat processed cheese on cardboard? When I went to visit one of my French friends, he was practically bursting at the seams to tell me that he had a Subway sandwich for the first time. When I asked whether or not he liked it, he told me “It’s incroyable! You get to choose what you want on your sandwich!” Another French friend of mine is headed to London on a business trip. Instead of being excited about seeing Big Ben or eating fish-n-chips, he told me was excited because he can “finally try Burger King!” Ironically, the only fast food chain that doesn’t seem to be super popular is Quik, which is the only chain that I’ve seen that is actually French.

Really random American TV shows. I guess this makes sense, because American shows are the best. I was happy to find out that “The Simpsons” reigns supreme here in France. I become something like a celebrity when I tell people here that the creator of “The Simpsons” went to the same university that I go to, and that Springfield is (loosely) based off a trashy town connected to my hometown. Another show that is insanely popular here is “House”, which is funny because I don’t know a single person who watches it back home. Whenever the topic of TV shows comes up between my French friends and I, they ask me if I watch “Docteur House”. They never believe me when I tell them that I have never seen an episode of it, kind of like how they never believe me when I tell them that I haven’t been to New York. Lastly, “The Young and the Restless” is extremely popular as well, which I find absolutely hilarious. While I was staying with my previous host family, they were convinced that I would be familiar with the show “Les feux de l’Amour” (“The Fires of Love”). They even played be the opening sequence to the show, and were perplexed when I didn’t recognize it. I found out later that it is “The Young and the Restless”, which has been going steady in France for 14 years

Luckily for me, Basketball is getting very popular in France. Thanks to Tony Parker, Nicholas Batum, and Joakim Noah (whose father is a French pop-singer), Basketball is quickly becoming the second most popular sport in France. The older brother in my previous host family is a huge Blazer fan and a self-proclaimed “French expert on the NBA”. He hits me up on Facebook all the time to talk about the big games and to give me shit for being a Miami Heat fan. It’s good to know that I’m not the only person in France staying up until 4 a.m. to watch basketball. I’ve been thinking about lacing up the ol’ B-ball shoes and heading over to the neighborhood park to show some youngsters how the game should be played. It’s been years since I’ve been able to school anyone in basketball.

Letterman’s jackets. This one I can’t figure out. I can’t think of anything clothing-wise that is more uniquely American than a Varsity Letterman’s jacket. European schools and universities don’t even have sports teams, so the concept of a “varsity letter” is beyond them. Yet, you see guys wearing knock-off Letterman’s jackets all the time. Sometimes I feel like I am walking the halls of a mid ‘90s teen sitcom, like “Saved By the Bell” or something (“hey, was that Slater?”). My only guess is that they the jackets on American shows, and (like everything American) try to duplicate the look. French people really do think that American highschools are how they are portrayed on T.V., and that we all walk around with letterman’s jackets and everybody is either a jock, cheerleader, or nerd.